Ashburton is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Boroondara.
Ashburton features a retail area around High Street, has two train stations - Ashburton and Alamein - and is home to a branch of the Boroondara Library.
The suburb being close to the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE, Monash University (Caulfield and Clayton campuses), Deakin University (Burwood campus) and Swinburne University (Hawthorn Campus) as well as easy public transport into the city has allowed for the growth and continuation of two student houses for students originally from the country. These two student houses are operated by the Ashburton Baptist Church.
It is also home to the Ashburton Asylum Seeker Support Group (founded in 2005) which is a combined effort between the Ashburton Baptist, Catholic and Anglican Churches to provide shelter and support to Asylum Seeker families while their visa applications are being processed during which time they are not entitled to receive social welfare nor obtain a job to support themselves.
There was controversy in June 2007 when potential ALP candidate Barbara Norman called the suburb "almost Kath and Kim country". She was referring to Ashburton to being like the fictional suburb of Fountain Lakes, in the ABC Television's show Kath and Kim.
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